Icing On The Day: Coyote

Coyote, roadside hunting, Mesa Verde National Park.

One of the many privileges of working in a National Park is that you can more frequently see wildlife in a more natural state. As in: not being shot at.

I thought about this as I was driving back out of Mesa Verde again during the winter "offseason" (for tourists, that is).

Coyote watching from above for its next meal.

A coyote was walking down the edge of the road, coming toward me. I stopped well before I got close to it, so I could grab my camera, and turn its control dial to a setting that I had programmed for "wildlife" so that I could enable it quickly. (I get a little smarter every year). (But just a little).

Being in a National Park, the coyote was only marginally interested in me, or should I say my vehicle. It surely was keeping an eye on me. At least one corner of it, just out of instinct.

I think that it was walking down the shoulder of the road because it gave a better view of the terrain just below. Looking for food. Prey.

Which made me think about weak we humans are, despite our immense intellectual talents. Because that coyote essentially wore its home on its back. Thick warm fur. It knows where to find (to it) delicious, high calorie food. It knows where to curl up in a sheltered place in the fiercest of winter storms. When to sleep, when to go back to hunting for the next meal.

Thus it needs no job. No career. It has one. It is one.

Could you live out there without a whole lot of insulated clothing and supplies that you had paid for somewhere? How "free" are you, after all?

See more of my photography at www.NaturalMoment.com.

© Copyright Stephen J. Krieg